SEO: Best Practices & Checklists ✓ CONTENT DESIGN LLC © 2020 | Tekla Szymanski | All Rights Reserved

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Search Engine Optimization:

Guidelines & Checklists ✓

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

is all about good content and

quality inbound links (backlinks) to

your site. SEO optimizes traffic and

location in search engine result

pages (SERP). 65% of all searches

are via Google, but good SEO is

essential on all search platforms.

Good SEO means quality backlinks from high ranking sites that in turn leads

to increased popularity. Popularity and trust in your site raise its importance.

Importance paired with consistent, valuable content that answers users’

questions increases your site’s relevance. SEO is a gradual process, and it

takes time and perseverance. It takes months to become noticeable and

appear on the first search result page. A successful SEO campaign usually

includes the following steps:

Website SEO Audit

Keyword/phrase Research

SEO Content Strategy

User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) Site Optimization

Backlink Acquisition

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Website SEO Audit

Conducting an SEO audit can be done manually or by using one of

many tools, such as Website Auditor from SEO Power Suite, SEMrush’s

audit tool or Bright Local’s audit tool. An audit will inform you of any

technical SEO issues, such as slow page speed, duplicate meta tags,

site errors and a lot more. Just fixing these issues alone can have a

huge impact on a site’s rankings. Other steps to take in your website

audit include:

• Strategic Objectives: Define your long-term goals; it will drive your

SEO strategy.

• Keyword Analysis: Find untapped, specific, measurable, attainable

and relevant keywords/phrases.

• Competitor Analysis: Keywords, SEO and content strategies used

on other sites in your industry.

• Technical Analysis: Check what hurts current search engine

performance (load speed, mobile responsiveness, redirect issues, site

index errors, duplicate meta data, site URL structure, internal linking

etc.), as well as poor user experience (duplicate content, 404

errors/missing pages, confusing navigation etc.).

• Page Level Analysis: Title/meta tags/keywords, URL structure,

HTML structure, images, internal/external linking, broken links etc.

• Content Analysis: Is your content unique, duplicate, outdated,

useful, informative, outperforming the competition, engaging,

accurate, long enough, error free?

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• User Experience (UX) and Interface (UI) Analysis: How well are

your site visitors interacting with the content and the CTAs of your

site? Bounce rate; average time spent on site; number of unique and

returning visitors; exit pages.

• Link Analysis: Number and quality of backlinks; link relevancy; link

authority; link diversity; link targeting (to your homepage or, ideally,

to deep links within your site); link velocity (steady or erratic);

referring domains.

• Citation Analysis: Consistent name, headshot, address, phone

numbers, contact info; up-to-date local business listings, business

directories, Google Business settings.

Keyword/Phrase Research (“users’ search intent”)

Keyword Research is the basis for any successful SEO campaign. The focus

keyword/phrase is the search term that you want your site/page to rank for

most. In an ideal case, searching that keyword/phrase should lead to your

site/page. The right keywords will help bring in targeted and qualified traffic

to your website. Research what your ideal site visitors want and need. The

number of quality incoming links to your site and the ranking of those sites

has a direct effect on your own SEO ranking as well. Search engines use

Spiders that crawl and index pages, and they can only find sites that have

links pointing to them. Research the best back links to acquire and link to

them.

Find the keywords (“short tail”) and key phrases (“long tail”) that people

would search for to reach your site (discover keyword phrases with Google

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search bar suggestions or use The Google Keyword Planner). Check how

those keywords rank and how well they attract visitors and answer their

questions. Next, with keyword research done, you should be able to identify

the right pages to optimize and begin the on-page optimization process.

Here is a handy to-do checklist to help you with your SEO strategy and site

content, site design, user experience, user interface and backend structure

optimization.

When all is done, go ahead and acquire backlinks from reputable

high-ranking sites.

I. General SEO Checklist ✓

☐ Your Domain Authority is important. Sites are evaluated on

expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. Age of a domain name

is also a plus, it shows establishment. Change the name, and you start

from zero. Get cited and you rank higher.

☐ Your site needs to be responsive for mobile. Google will rank pages

according to their responsiveness only.

☐ Check your Google search ranking.

☐ How does your site and meta description look in Google results?

☐ Check your site’s loading speed with the Google speed tool.

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II. Content/Editorial SEO Checklist ✓

Without good content, every SEO strategy will fall flat. Without good

content, you will not acquire the necessary backlinks to help your site rank

better. Without good content, your site will not increase its site ranking on

search engines.

☐ Is your business listed on Google Places or Google Business? Is the

accurate business information listed?

☐ Is Schema (rich snippets)

optimized, the little additional

text boxes that give specific,

targeted information to search

engines for your site (see at

right the search result for The

Metropolitan Museum of Art with

their Schema implementation).

☐ Are customer reviews listed?

☐ Are relevant, high-quality photos listed?

☐ Always write quality, original, fresh, relevant content.

☐ Research/expert content (statistics, data, industry studies,

infographics, surveys, white papers) rank higher because people like to

link back to them as reference.

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☐ Update your content regularly.

☐ Use multimedia.

☐ Cover your page’s topic in-depth; longform is fine and is becoming

more and more relevant to higher page rankings.

☐ Delete old/outdated content.

☐ Delete duplicate content.

☐ Use evergreen content to provide value for years.

☐ Create visual content (infographics, charts, concept visuals) that can

be embedded on other sites with a link back to you.

☐ Encourage blog comments and community.

☐ Answer questions that your keyword research has found. Use long

keyword phrases, narrow/niche and low competition topics (not “How to use WordPress” But “How to do xyz in WordPress”).

☐ Your site content has to match a user’s search intent.

☐ Use your keywords/phrases in your content in the first 150 words.

Google puts more weight on the first 100-150 words of a page.

☐ Remove filler words and phrases.

☐ Break text up into smaller paragraphs/chunks to maximize readability.

☐ Use headings and subheadings to break up text and make navigation easier.

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Meta Descriptions & Keywords

☐ Include bulleted lists.

☐ Use bold text to highlight key points.

☐ Prioritize visible content.

☐ Replace underscores with hyphens.

☐ Don’t use puns and wordplay. Search engines are robots; they only

scan keywords and don’t understand your humor (yet?).

☐ Make sure all headlines are grammatically correct and make sense.

☐ Good titles and meta descriptions are not a replacement for poor

content. Help searchers find what they are looking for by properly

representing your site’s content.

☐ Write different meta descriptions for every page.

☐ Always add your keywords/phrase to page headings, subheads, image alt tags, page titles and page copy.

☐ Make sure that no two pages on your site are competing for the same keyword/phrase (aka “keyword cannibalization”).

☐ Write clear, concise, enticing and accurate meta descriptions.

☐ Use different title/meta descriptions/images and formatting for social

media sharing (“Open Graph”).

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☐ Remember: the meta description will show up in search results. If you

don’t provide one, Google may pull in random text found on the page.

☐ Include primary, secondary and key phrases.

☐ Use keywords that are known, but not too general, to be ranked with

other relevant/competing pages.

☐ Use the keywords that your users are actually using to find pages like

yours. Conform to what the definition is, not what you want it to be, but

don’t be too broad in your definitions.

☐ Do not overuse the same keyword repeatedly in the same document or

search engines will regard you as a spammer.

☐ Use descriptive text surrounding a video (title, description, captions,

tags) stating what the video is about to get picked up by the search

engines.

☐ In Blogs: Use tags (embedded keywords).

☐ Use product-specific, target keywords or phrases instead of general

keywords for each URL; use distinctive product names when possible.

☐ Try and use unique keywords for each page.

☐ Include common misspellings of the keywords, i.e., “camkorder,

kamcorder, camcorder.” Some users may misspell product names, brand

names or other keywords when doing searches. By including alternate

versions of commonly misspelled words in your relevancy keywords, you

can increase the likelihood that those users will find your site.

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☐ Don’t include punctuation marks or special characters at the beginning

of your title. They will not improve your search relevancy, nor will they

cause your listing to show up higher in searches.

☐ Avoid using superlatives such as “best,” “cheapest,” or “great.” Keep in

mind that your customers do searches for specific questions, products or services, not superlative or promotional terms.

☐ If you choose to use broader terms when selecting keywords, or if you

choose to use the name of your site, make sure to point the user to a

high-level page on your site. For example, a listing with a broad category

keyword like “books” performs best when it points to a home page or a

broad “books” category page, rather than pointing to a page about a

specific book or author.

☐ Check that all meta descriptions are properly formatted.

☐ Descriptions should use complete sentences and follow standard rules

of punctuation, grammar and spelling.

☐ The description should clearly and concisely communicate what

products, services and/or information users will find if they click on your

link.

☐ The description should not exceed 150 characters with spaces.

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Links

☐ Backlinks from high-ranking sites are key to a higher search rank.

☐ Check and fix broken links (use WordPress plugins like Broken Link

Checker).

☐ Insert a good amount of internal links and use your keywords/phrases

as link text. Internal links send signals to Google about which pages on

your site are most important. In a nutshell, the pages with the most

internal links are the pages you are wanting your users to visit.

☐ Include 2-4 outbound links every 1000 words. Links to other sites give

your site a bit of their strength as well. Open links in a new browser

window so that people can get back to your site easily.

☐ Check that all outbound links are to reputable sources.

☐ Include at least 2 or 3 links to related posts on your site.

☐ Include linked tags to related content.

☐ Include links to related broader category pages.

☐ Always use the <a> tag to link, never JavaScript.

☐ Link within sites with text labels/alt names/anchor text in the

link/images (not “click here”).

☐ Linking to pages with a similar topic as your post isn’t encouraged. You

can’t rank better than your competitor when you link to them.

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Images

☐ Image SEO is as important as content SEO.

☐ Optimize your image sizes (use a WordPress plugin like Smush).

☐ To optimize images, save larger images as .JPEG instead of .TIFF and

save images as .PNG to preserve their background transparency. Use

.SVG for logos and icons.

☐ Use captions with your images.

☐ Make sure your images are responsive.

☐ Check if images have alt tags, descriptions and if they’re described

correctly. Use the browser extension Web Developer for that.

☐ Always use relevant images to highlight your copy.

☐ Use descriptive image titles and use lower case.

☐ Always use <alt> tags with descriptive text

☐ The alt tag should not exceed 65 characters with spaces and should include the keywords/phrase.

☐ Add structured data (“OpenGraph” and “Twitter Card” tags) in the image attribute for richer social media link previews.

☐ Resize images to the size you want displayed on the site before

uploading them to optimize loading speed.

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III. Backend SEO Checklist ✓

☐ Chose a reliable host to limit downtime.

☐ Upgrade to PHP 7.0 or higher.

☐ Identify crawl errors (find them in Google’s Search Console under “Coverage”).

☐ Use Google’s Search Console “Inspect URL” feature to check how Google “sees” your page.

☐ Pick the right permalink setting in WordPress: use “example.com/post-

name” or “example.com/category/post-name” not the default

“example.com/?p=123”.

☐ Set up Google Analytics to track traffic to your site.

☐ Set up Google Search Console to track site performance in Google

Search.

☐ Create an XML sitemap for search engines and submit to Goggle

Search Console. Keep your sitemap simple and organized.

☐ Create a robots.txt file. To see if your site already has a robot.txt file,

type the basic URL of the site into your browser’s search bar and add

/robots.txt onto the end. You’ll see a string of text if your site has such

file already set up.

☐ Install the Yoast SEO plugin if you use WordPress to help you with

meta descriptions and SEO content optimization.

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URLs

☐ Include your keywords in the URLs and don’t use the same keyword

twice.

☐ Optimize your URL structure.

☐ Don’t use words like” is” or “the” in the URL.

☐ Use lower case letters.

☐ Use Schema markup (aka “rich snippets”) to help your pages stand out in searches.

☐ Use https:// (SSL) for security not http://.

☐ Optimize page loading time (use Google PageSpeed Insights).

☐ Clear your cache and enable browser caching.

☐ Check that your pages work on mobile devices.

☐ Get rid of unnecessary WordPress plugins. Update plugins regularly.

☐ Create an icon/favicon for your site.

☐ Don’t use JavaScript and Flash files.

☐ Minimize your CSS and HTML files.

☐ Ensure easy navigation and an accessible menu, both on desktop and mobile.

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Page Titles

☐ Use short URLs.

☐ Use dashes (–) to separate words.

☐ Make sure the URL is 100% readable.

☐ Ensure URL formatting is consistent.

☐ Remember: page titles show up in search results.

☐ Chose a catchy, short title.

☐ Place keywords/information-carrying words and phrases in

title/subheads and also throughout the article. Users scan and skim

content: The first paragraphs have to state the most important ideas.

☐ Check that title tags are being used correctly.

☐ The title tag should include the search keywords and phrases up front.

The more detailed the better. Don’t use the same keyword/phrase on

more than one page title on your site. You don’t want to outrank yourself.

☐ Your description should be written in the third person. Avoid first- person

pronouns such as “me” or “my” and second-person pronouns like “you” or

“your.”

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HTML Tags

☐ Remove all "nofollow" HTML tags.

☐ Use consistent text size header hierarchy (H1, H2, H3…).

☐ Keep content inside <content> tags if possible.

☐ Check alt text on images is properly formatted.

☐ Check the page HTML to make sure the H1 tag surrounds the post title.

☐ Check if the keyword/phrase is as close to beginning of the title phrase as

possible.

☐ Make sure the H1 tag only appears once on a page.

☐ Check that the subheading structure is formatted correctly.

☐ Ensure that related keywords are placed as early as possible in the H2 and

H3 headings.

☐ Avoid over-saturating alt text with keywords.

☐ Use HTML tags/elements for keywords; <meta description>; headline

hierarchy (which shows the spider the outline of the page) and page/site

<title>.

☐ Keywords need to be in the <description> tag for Google to pick it up.

Google only scans this tag.

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Helpful Tools to Use:

• Google Analytics

• Google Search Console

• Google Keyword Planner: A keyword tool that lets you see which

keywords/phrases are more relevant in a search.

• Google Trends to choose keywords and get a graph that shows the

usage and other related searches.

• Google Insights (keyword tool, terms with the most traffic) 3-day lag

• Inbound linking overview: Majestic, Moz, SEMrush

• Finding duplicate/copied content: Siteliner, Copyscape

• Google’s Mobile Friendly Test

• Spider tools to find SEO flaws: Screaming Frog or Sitebulb

• Yoast WordPress SEO Optimizing Plugin

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ABOUT CONTENT DESIGN LLC

Hi, I am Tekla Szymanski, founder of Content Design LLC, your

one-stop shop for content strategy and

web development for content-rich

nonprofit and personal websites.

You have a small team and even less

time? I hear you. And since your website

deserves an editor, writer and web

designer who understands how to

leverage your unique content and then

adapt the right design to it, I can help you get your message out.

You have a story to tell, a mission to share or a service to offer,

and we will find the right platform to build a website around your

unique content needs that converts your site visitors into loyal

donors, paying clients or new members.

What sets me apart? Most web designers and developers don’t

come from a content-creating background. I do.

SEO: Best Practices & Checklists ✓ CONTENT DESIGN LLC © 2020 | Tekla Szymanski | All Rights Reserved

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DISCLAIMER

SEO is crucial to rank your site. But without good content, the

best SEO strategy will fall flat. Without good content, you will not

acquire the necessary backlinks to help your site rank better.

Without good content, your site will not increase its site ranking

on search engines.

Please bear in mind that this guide is meant as an introduction to

SEO best practices. It is by no means complete and SEO

guidelines change constantly. Success or outcome of your own

SEO campaign depends on many factors—technical, creative,

time and money invested. I cannot be held responsible for the

performance and the ranking of your site.

What I can offer you though is a helping hand if you need it.

Schedule a free consultation call: bit.ly/AcuityContentDesign

Email me: editor@tekla-szymanski.com

Visit my website & blog: www.tekla-szymanski.com